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[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
I’m over the apple. I get that it’s iconic to the show but it doesn’t quite fit with each new scenario. Emma has a hot of her own symbols…why not use one of them?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Excellent job Jo! I really love this chapter. It’s our first real look at the magical world and it’s a doozy.
A rather obscure reference, but it was reminiscent of Harry’s trip to Diagon Ally. In this instance, how does Harry return his Muggle life after experiencing the wonders of the Wizarding world?
Nice analogy with the WWI song (and no, I didn’t get the reference! I feel shame.) Another one might be a blind person being able to see for the first time. The veil has been lifted and the abusive and rough mundane world has given way to a loud and colorful magical one. Everything about this world that Harry find himself in is better. Just point blank, better.
No one is yelling at him or hurting him or neglecting him–in fact, everyone wants to meet him and shake his hand.
He’s not dirt poor and being forced to wear Dudley’s hand me down’s. In fact, he’s got a bank vault full of cash.
He doesn’t get a hanger for his birthday, but instead a fluffy friendly owl.
Goblins, wizards, racing brooms, ice cream, magical wands…this world has everything.
The opening of the bricked barrier signifies the opening of his life to something else. Something more. He can never go back to being Harry who slept in the cupboard under the stairs. Walking through that archway was walking into a new life. And while we know he will return to his Muggle relatives’ house, it’s no longer home and never will be again.
I mentioned the idea of liminality a page or two back when Macy did her review of Chapter 3 but I’ll mention it here again. The bar, the Leaky Cauldron, and the alley way behind are liminal places. They serve as neither in the mundane world (humans apparently can’t see it) but they aren’t “in” the magical either–it’s not apart of Diagon Alley. It’s literally a doorway (they tend to be huge liminal spaces) from one world to the next. As a side note to this, I love how you have to get the code right in order to Diagon Alley to be open to you.
The boy’s greed and spoiled nature immediately remind Harry of his cousin Dudley. As the conversation goes on during the fitting Harry likes him less and less as he insults Hagrid for being just a “servant” and a “savage” and then reveals his prejudice against others.
Jo and I were talking about this the other night but there are echos in the magical world that recall Harry’s life in the mundane. This boy in the shop appears to be as uncharitable and disgusting as Dudley (note that even the blonde physical appearance is the same; just the body type is different.) Also, briefly, we know who the boy is–Draco Malfoy–and both boys, Draco and Dudley, have harsh clunky names. Names are important in JKR’s world, as Jo pointed out back in Chapter 1
There are other echos, particularly in the idea of intolerance and racism, which takes us to:
Discrimination occurs in everywhere. They may have magic, but wizards and witches are not immune to human emotions such as greed, hatred, or jealousy.
I want to talk about discrimination and racism, briefly. Obviously this is something that plays a major role in the series as a whole. This boy in the shop exhibits a racism that is based on blood–the “other” kind of witch and wizard shouldn’t be allowed in Hogwarts. These is something impure about those kinds (Muggle born). We’ve also seen that Vernon and Petunia exhibit discrimination tendencies toward Magical Folk for being odd and absurd. Their racism is grounded in ignorance–magic and the magical world do not align with their construction of the world and therefore must be an oddity, something “unreal” in the face of the real.
My question is actually about Hagrid and others like him. He’s not a racist (wizardist? what do you call people who are against Muggle born Wizards and Witches?) in the sense that the boy in the shop is. In fact, Hagrid seems to be open to them in general. BUT Hagrid does seem to exhibit ill feelings toward the Dursleys, though this can be written off on account of the Dursley’s treatment of Harry. But going further, is anyone else bothered by the term “Muggle.” It’s a distinction that I don’t know I’ve ever thought overly much about because when I first read, it was just a way to distinguish between “this” and “that.” But…isn’t that what all discriminatory remarks are? A way to put people into boxes as being separate from some other category. And often times it is a way to project superiority or rightness over the group you’ve labeled. The “N” word here in America. Homo or Queer when meant in a derogatory manner. Feminist when used by certain sects to describe a movement they dislike (or if you’re Rush Limbaugh, FemiNazi).
My point is this: what is the difference between the boy in the shop’s remarks about these “other” kinds and Hagrid’s casual “Muggle” dropping? Is there one? And if not, was that JKR’s point? Jo aptly titled this section “the song remains the same;” isn’t what Hagrid doing (and everyone else in the magical world) casual, unintentional racism?
Foreshadowing –Gringotts and how hard it is to break into the bank.
I would add every single bit of Wand Lore Ollivander spills here as well.
1. How do you think the “student” in Madam Malkin’s would react if Harry had had time to finish the conversation and revealed his surname?
Gosh darn good question. I think there’d by a lot of sneering but a lot of sucking up as well. I don’t think the boy and Harry would ever truly be friends, but the boy in the shop would try to pretend they were. The boy has been raised in a certain manner; you cultivate power and those around you help you in that. Whatever this boy might think about the Potters and Voldemort (and based on his attitude we can guess a fair amount here), Harry is still supposed to be super powerful (even at the age of 11).
3. What do you think Harry’s opinions are on having a wand that shares a common core with the wand that killed his parents and did great evil in the wizarding world?
Like this is a gut punch. I don’t know how you rationalize that in your brain. I really don’t. I think the only reason Harry doesn’t become myopically focused on that detail is because it’s all so new to him. The idea that his wand and Voldemort’s wand are in any way identical doesn’t mean as much to him as it would to anyone else since Harry is still brand spanking new to this world.
Knitting Reference: And because I am knitting nerd and HP is full of knitting, I shall count all the knitting references in the series and post each
I kinda love you
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I remember really loving Dumbledore when I first read the series. In fact…when the whole story is laid bare in book 7, I was very angry because I felt like JKR had done an abrupt 180 on his character. BUT now that we’re really digging into the series slowly and piecemeal, Dumbledore has had some shades of sneaky and gray about him all along–or at least is more than “kind old wise wizard.” It’s interesting to see, especially since he has only appeared once in our narrative thus far.
Could it also be that the use of other characters describing Dumbledore in their opinions as “The greatest wizard that ever lived” also coloured your opinion of him? Was your opinion of Dumbledore swayed by how other characters viewed him until the truth came out?
To the question of other characters and their influences on my take of Dumbledore: absolutely. Take a look at what we’ve got so far: McGonagall refers to Dumbledore as “noble’ in direct contrast to Voldemort’s (baby wanna-be killer) “un-noble” acts. We’ve got Hagrid beaming with pride that Dumbledore trusts him so much and refers to him as a great wizard and a great headmaster. Hagrid, while saying this, is literally rescuing our boy wonder from a life of abuse thereby making Hagrid “more right” in the eyes of the reader. The letter itself has Dumbledore listed as Headmaster but also lists a slew of awards like “Order of Merlin, First Class” something that instantly gives a sense of grandeur to this man. I think JKR was doing this deliberately.
It’s a heady mix of archetype (wise old wizard who becomes a sort of father/grandfather figure to the Hero) and what everyone one believes/is saying about Dumbledore.
@Jo I will read your analysis here shortly and respond!
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"It could just be a one time thing for the first episode. Don’t we know Emma goes full Dark One by the end of that episode and gets imprisoned?? Or is the CC clip not canon? Anyway, yeah, that could be it.
The SDCC clip is not canon
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
An updated version. This will, most likely, be the S5 DVD cover as well.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"It’s like with Shadow Belle in Season 3A. They decided to keep Belle in Storybrooke in Season 3A to 1) enact the protection spell, 2) have one of the regulars in Storybrooke, 3) to help Ariel out. So to give Belle more screentime, they created the whole Shadow Belle plotline.
Agreed. But thus far we haven’t seen Dark One! Rumple on set, at least while filming outdoors. So I guess Bobby is indoors quite a bit (when he’s not out promoting his new film)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
